Bay Area Reporter - April 30, 2009
Matthew S. Bajko, m.bajko@ebar.com

Long a champion of AIDS funding in Congress, Pelosi received a private tour Wednesday, April 15 of the nonprofit food agency's preparation area, hot meal packing equipment, and rooftop solar panels by longtime supporter and former political colleague Tom Nolan, executive director of the agency and a former San Mateo County supervisor.

Entering through the building's back entrance, Pelosi remarked, "Oh my gosh, how we have grown."

A gushing Nolan greeted her as "Madame Speaker," asking if she had gotten tired of hearing the honorary title. To which Pelosi responded, "No."

This year alone, Pelosi secured $200,000 in federal Ryan White CARE Act funds for Project Open Hand that otherwise would have been cut from its budget. Since passage of the legislation in 1990, more than $400 million in federal funding for AIDS has been directed to agencies in San Francisco.

Nolan noted that his agency has seen $25 million of that money over the years.

"Our purpose today is to thank you Madame Speaker," said Nolan, adding that due to Pelosi, a planned $96 million cut to the city's CARE Act funding was avoided. "Because of Pelosi, those funds were restored. We would have lost $200,000 a year; that is a lot of meals each year."

He wasn't the only executive director to lavish praise on Pelosi. Positive Resource Center's Brett Andrews said he "hoped I am not being inappropriate" by remarking that Pelosi, wearing a chunky multi-colored choker necklace and blue pantsuit, "boy is she beautiful. I have an inner giddiness right now."

A smiling Pelosi, who was being followed by a Time magazine reporter working on an in-depth profile of her, interjected, "You are doing just fine."

AIDS Emergency Fund Executive Director Mike Smith, who also is president of the HIV/AIDS Providers Network, presented Pelosi with the group's first HAPN Hero Award.

Smith recalled that when Pelosi first was sworn in as a congresswoman 22 years ago she broke with protocol by grabbing the microphone - freshman lawmakers were expected to remain quiet - and declaring, "I am Nancy Pelosi and I am here to fight AIDS."

Pelosi corrected Smith, saying, "I didn't grab the mic" but was asked if she would like to speak.

"I said yes. It was a short speech," she recalled. "Friends later asked me why would you have ever mentioned AIDS? I said for the simple reason that I am here to fight AIDS."

She would go on to push her colleagues to pass the Ryan White CARE Act and helped secure the needed permits from the National Park Service so that the AIDS memorial quilt could be displayed on the National Mall. During the first march on Washington for LGBT rights, she joined with Smith to read aloud the names of those lost to AIDS.

While Laura Thomas, who oversees how the CARE Act dollars are prioritized as co-chair of the HIV Health Services Planning Council, praised Pelosi for fighting for AIDS "from the first moment you stepped on the floor of Congress," she also urged the lawmaker to lift the federal ban on funding clean needle exchange programs and to focus more attention on hepatitis C.

"I ask you to be our champion on that," said Thomas.

An emotional thank you came from Thomas's fellow co-chair, Steve Manley, who has lived with HIV and AIDS for 21 years. He told Pelosi that if it were not for her leadership in Congress, he most likely would not be alive today.

"I am more than certain I wouldn't be here," said Manley, who received a warm embrace from Pelosi. "You not only saved a lot of organizations and people's lives, you gave me and people like me a booster shot of hope that there are people in Washington who still care."

Pelosi downplayed her role, saying the achievements were a collaboration between lawmakers and AIDS advocates and officials from around the country.

"You give me too much credit. Any success I attribute to all of you," said Pelosi, adding that she believed when she went to Congress that "it was very important to end discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS."

She later noted that, "I never thought 22 years later we would be standing here without a cure."

Prior to the award ceremony, Nolan presented Pelosi with an "honorary volunteer" T-shirt and a copy of a signed Comforting Foods cookbook by Project Open Hand founder Ruth Brinker in front of half a dozen longtime volunteers of the agency who were cutting up carrots.

San Francisco resident Pat Conlin, who has spent almost every Tuesday helping out at the agency since 1995, said she draws inspiration from Pelosi becoming the first female speaker in the House and thanked her for her work on AIDS-related issues and other concerns.

"She is a great person and works really hard for us," she said.

Fellow 10-year volunteer Jean Marcucci, who also lives in the city, said she admires Pelosi's tenacity in passing bills of interest to San Franciscans, such as the Ryan White CARE Act.

"She has a tough job representing us and getting things passed through a difficult Congress," she said. "She has to walk a fine line there."

Senator Leno, ladies' man

He may have ousted one of the state's most powerful women - and the last lesbian elected politician left in San Francisco - from office last year, but that hasn't denied state Senator Mark Leno from winning praise from the California chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The feminist advocacy group named Leno its "Legislator of the Year" in the Senate "for his leadership in promoting equal rights for women and girls in California," according to a statement.

"I am proud to announce Senator Leno is one of California NOW's 2008 Legislators of the Year having shown through his legislative agenda that he is a true champion for equality," said California NOW President Patty Bellasalma.

The California chapter of NOW, which was launched in 1972, represents more than 75,000 members and supporters, including both women and men. It picked Leno for the award based on four bills he authored as an assemblyman during the 2007-08 legislative year.

The legislation Leno authored that garnered him the award was AB 43, which would have given same-sex couples the right to marry in California; AB 1511, which would have continued a statewide public education campaign designed to encourage young people to speak with their parents about sexual health; SB 718, which would remove the state's fingerprinting requirement for food stamp applicants; and SB 572, the bill that would create Harvey Milk Day in California.

The latter two bills were first generated in the Assembly last year and have been reintroduced by Leno in the Senate this year.

Stating he was honored to receive the award, Leno also thanked California NOW "for making the equal rights of women and minority groups a top priority in our state."

Carole Migden won the same honor from the group in 2001, when she served in the state Assembly. NOW's political action committee remained neutral in the June 2008 Democratic primary match-up between Leno and Migden, but did endorse Leno in the general election last November over his female Republican opponent Sashi McEntee.

This year, California NOW selected Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) as Legislator of the Year in the lower body. Both Leno and Jones received their honors at a reception inside the state Capitol last Wednesday, April 22.

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Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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